Britain moves to expand Security Council

By Ewen MacAskill in London and Tom Allard in CanberraJune 12 2003

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is planning to put forward detailed proposals at the United Nations to reform the Security Council in a move to mend some of the damage done by disagreements over the Iraq war.

The British Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday that it wants to see the 15-member security council expanded to 24 to give a wider reflection of world opinion.

The move is similar to a proposal floated by Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard.

The British plan is for the five permanent members on the council - Britain, the United States, Russia, China and France - to be expanded to 10.

Britain wants Germany, Japan and India, plus one Latin American and one African country, to join the council.");document.write("

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Unlike the present permanent members, the new ones will not have a veto, because the Foreign Office believes that giving them a veto would make the Security Council unmanageable.

Australia's proposal, as articulated last month by Mr Howard, would see the creation of five new permanent members without veto power; overall numbers would remain at 15.

However, his office stressed the Prime Minister was "shooting the breeze" when he made the remarks. No firm plan had been put to the UN.

The British Government is also braced for opposition from hawks in the Bush Administration who feel the Security Council was neutered by the Iraq row and are happy to leave it like that.

The State Department is believed to be sympathetic to the British plan but the hawks in the Pentagon, which has a big say in US foreign policy, are hostile.

Reform of the security council was proposed by the then British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, three years ago, but a Foreign Office source said yesterday that the push this time will be "much, more serious because of what happened over Iraq".

Reform would need unanimity on the Security Council as well as two-thirds of the 191 members of UN General Assembly.